The invention concerns methods of controlling and monitoring the operation of coke-oven accessory machines, such as larry cars, guide cars, pushers, quenching cars, and the like, and auxiliary stations such as overhead coal bins, quenching towers and coke wharves.
Controlling and monitoring the operation of coking installations, including the accessory machines and auxiliary stations mentioned above, places great demands upon the alertness and concentration of the operating personnel. The various accessory machines, such as the charging larries, the pushers, and so forth, must be brought into exactly correct positions relative to the middle of each oven in a battery of coke ovens and, furthermore, into predetermined positions relative to one another. This is particularly the case when charging the coke ovens by means of the charging larry and, also, during performance of the pushing operation, in which the pusher, the guide car at the coke side of the oven, and the quenching car at the coke side of the oven, must all be brought into exact register with the oven to be pushed.
Attempts have been made in the art to establish interlocks dependent upon proper positioning of pushers, guide cars and quenching cars relative to the oven to be pushed and relative to one another. In German allowed patent application DT-AS 24 21 631, a system is disclosed for doing this, utilizing contactless pulse generators and receivers. Another possibility which has been considered makes use of beamed radiation transmitted by a transmitter through the two open sides of an individual oven and detected by receivers; the radiation could be gamma radiation, high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, or light.
It has also been proposed to make use of electromagnetic contactors. Most interestingly, German published patent application DT-OS 1,571,640 discloses the establishment of an interlock dependent upon the ascertainment of certain positions; however, the information concerning the reaching of certain positions is derived by counting increments of the distance travelled by the accessory machines in question.
These known arrangements have the disadvantage that they require the provision of sensitive electrical and/or electronic devices in the immediate vicinity of the hot coking ovens, and must therefore be installed, operated and connected to cables extending through this physically severe environment. For this reason, and also for reasons relating to the monitoring concepts basic to prior-art monitoring and control proposals, such systems are more than acceptably susceptible to malfunction.
Additionally, the individual operations involved in the operation of a coking installation are numerous and must be performed in certain sequences which are dependent, inter alia, upon the coking times of the individual ovens. To the extent that the sequencing and timing of these operations must be controlled by operating personnel, great demands are placed upon the attention and concentration of the personnel.